The author argues that embarrassment over references to divine wrath in more recent times reflects a similar embarrassment or at least ambivalence among writers, pagan and Christian, in Late Antiquity. Patristic writers were especially sensitive to the ways human rage could inform Scripture readers’ understanding of divine wrath. Although insisting that God’s indignation was a

Vatican Il’s Gaudium et spes sees the church-world relationship in dialogical terms. This article argues that conceiving the church-world relationship as a dialogue is an important element in the council’s recognition of what Charles Taylor calls the “modern social imaginary.” The article defends the council’s view of dialogue against the argument that contemporary Western views

Building on an episode in Uganda, the author considers ethical issues facing missionaries due to race-based privileges. He uses the notion of white privilege to consider how missionaries should negotiate the default racialization found in missionary settings where race operates differently than it does where white privilege is usually found. Racial privileges intensify the competing

The heuristic of retributive punishment on which theology has often relied to explain the Crucifixion, argues the author, does not help us understand how this event was responsive to the wounds of the violated. A heuristic of empathetic identification, however, enables us to develop a theology of redemption that appreciates how God’s loving embrace of

Perhaps without intending it, Robert Doran began a conversation that contrasts the methodological procedures of Wolfhart Pannenberg with the methodology of Bernard Lonergan. This essay explores the differences further and shows how a clarification of these two distinct but helpful methodological procedures not only enhances an understanding of the mysteries of the Christian faith and

The liveliness of the discipline of ecclesiology depends on the cross-referencing between theological doctrines about the church and actual churches. In an intellectual pincer movement these authors argue that the theological discipline of ecclesiology has to be chastened by consideration of the congregations in order to be credible, and that congregational studies needs the input

The article explores the showdown between Pope Gregory I and Patriarch John IV of Constantinople over the ecumenical title. It argues that the promotion of the title coincided with other Eastern challenges to Roman prestige and that Gregory’s diplomatic strategies evolved over the course of the controversy. While nothing in his correspondence suggests that he

The ecological crisis today is due in great part to a widespread anthropocentric attitude toward nature characterized by (1) a dualism that sees humanity as totally distinct from nature and (2) an instrumentalism that sanctions an indiscriminate use of nature for the sake of humans. To offset the possible destructiveness of this anthropocentrism, we need

Examining theological reflection in an age of migration, the author focuses on four foundations of a theology of migration and refugees: (1) Imago Dei: Crossing the Problem—Person Divide; (2) Verbum Dei: Crossing the Divine—Human Divide; (3) Missio Dei: Crossing the Human—Human Divide; and (4) Visio Dei: Crossing the Country—Kingdom divide. As a call to cross

The article explores the African experience of Jesus in an objective and subjective sense. Under the rubrics of missionary, biblical, and independent experience, how Africans have experienced Jesus centers on the question whether and how Jesus can be said to have moved from being a stranger or guest to being kin and finally host. How